Review: Kole’s display captivates large audience

Andy Dygert
News Editor
April 22, 2004, Page 5

Magician and illusionist Andre Kole created magic both spiritually and with his famous deceptions in fine style last night.
The world famous entertainer brought life and energy to the stage as he made objects around him disappear. He gleefully spoke of his trade with many small jokes thrown in for good measure.
“Ever since the beginning of time there have been people being deceived,” Kole said. “And there have been people to deceive them. Some are called magicians — others are called politicians.”
His corny jokes offered an element of light-hearted gaiety to the program as Kole appeared to shove a sword through the neck of a young man from the audience. He then seemed to decapitate an assistant and then rebuilt her. Kole says that his jokes and illusions go hand in hand.
“It’s mind over matter,” Kole said. “If you don’t mind — I don’t matter.”
Kole showed his spiritual side during the show as well. He spoke of coming to his current understanding of God in a very feeling and realistic way. He spoke of his efforts to make sure that Jesus’ miracles were not just illusion as he had disproved many other seeming ghost stories and ‘spiritual’ encounters throughout the world.
He ended with a prayer, having the audience members fill out cards stating their intentions with the prayer. Before this spiritual segment, he allowed a minute for anyone not wanting to participate in the religious part to leave the auditorium.
“I made it my business to find out if His [Jesus’] miracles were deception or not,” Kole said. “I feel that there are many reasons he could not possibly have used deception.”
Kole said that he believed there had to be more to life than “just making more and more money for more and more stuff,” and when he realized this is when he started his spiritual journey.
Kole astounded the house by levitating the stage.
“Someone once said gravity isn’t just a good idea, it’s the law,” said Kole as he readied himself for the feat of levitation. “And right now I intend to break that law.”
He sat in a meditating position and slowly rose up until his feet were around four feet above the stage. His assistants removed all of the surrounding objects to show that none of them were keeping the illusionist in mid-air. Kole remained airborne for several minutes.
For his final act, Kole brought a large replica of the Statue of Liberty to center-stage. He then explained how he would make the statue disappear in front of the audience’s eyes, with them being able to see part of the statue at all times until it was completely gone, in slow-motion. Incredibly, it went just as he had explained and the bulky object was gone — though it seemingly had nowhere to go.
Kole said:
“Even the smartest people can be taken in by a clever deception.”